by Guido Santevecchi
The pro-democracy camp editor faces life imprisonment under China’s National Security Law. He has a British passport but refused to flee Hong Kong
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
BEIJING – Four years after being locked in a maximum security prison that allows him no more than 50 minutes of “air” a day, Hong Kong Democratic Editor Jimmy Lai he was able to speak in public. No longer in front of the marches with hundreds of thousands of citizens who until 2019 tried to stop the Chinese grip on the autonomy of the City, but in the hall of the court that is trying him for “conspiracy, collusion with foreign powers and publication of seditious material”.
Lai, 77, Hong Kong’s most famous political prisoner, was called to testify by his lawyer. The millionaire faces life imprisonment, under China’s National Security Law imposed in 2020. But even a more lenient sentence at his age could mean life in prison.
Lai explained that he founded the opposition newspaper Apple Daily Why «provide free information» it seemed like a good idea to him after witnessing the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. «The more you know, the freer you are»he said in the courtroom in front of the three judges chosen by the government for this trial which settles accounts with the opposition (on 19 November, the 45 activists, politicians, journalists, professors who organized the Democratic primaries in 2020).
On the topic of the press, Lai added that his editorial group supported the same values as justice, freedom and democracy who had inspired the people of Hong Kong. For his support for the opposition Apple Daily in 2020 it was searched by hundreds of police who took Lai away in handcuffs, his funds were blocked and in 2021 he was forced to cease publication.
The prosecution cited 161 articles and editorials of the newspaper as evidence of his “seditious tendency”. Today in Beijing the Foreign Ministry spokesperson defined Jimmy Lai as «an agent and lackey of the anti-Chinese forces, the number one conspirator in the anti-Chinese uprising». The comment leaves no doubt about the guilty verdict already issued in Beijing for this trial underway in Hong Kong.
The other major accusation concerns the meetings that Jimmy Lai had in 2019 in Washington with then US Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The judges argue that the publisher attack on national security invoking American sanctions against the government of Beijing and Hong Kong. Lai testified that he did not solicit any action, but only “explained the situation” in Hong Kong.
«I didn’t ask the United States to do anything (against Beijing and Hong Kong, ndr) I wanted to say something about what was happening in our country”, said the political prisoner. In 2019 on his American trip Lai held conferences to explain the struggle for democracy underway in Hong Kong and call for political support: «We are a small island in China who shares your values, who fights on the front lines risking everything, you must put your moral authority at our side to win.”
Beijing accuses Lai of being a secessionist. The lawyer asked him today if he has ever thought about the independence of Hong Kong and Taiwan. «These are things so crazy that no one can think of them», the defendant replied.
This trial which has been ongoing for a year (an extremely long time according to Hong Kong’s judicial practice) also represents the final clash between what remained of freedom of speech and of the press in the former British colony and the new repressive line imposed by Beijing with the National Security Law, tightened this year by another law passed in Hong Kong by the legislative assembly where they now only sit “patriotic deputies” (i.e. loyal to the Beijing Communist Party). The Hong Kong government did not want to accept that Lai was defended by a British lawyer, it also denied the presence of a popular jury and selected the three judges.
The case of Jimmy Lai summarizes the history of Hong Kong and tells its drama: born in China in 1947 to a family of landowners of Guangdong punished by the new communist government, he had fled to the British colony as a boy to leave behind the pauperism established as a system of government by Mao. In the 1970s he opened a textile industry and also imposed himself on the Chinese market his brand of affordable clothing inspired by Western fashion. He had become a millionaire in 1989, when the Tiananmen Square massacre pushed him into politics.
He wrote an article in a Hong Kong magazine in which he defined Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng “a son of a good woman”. With that choice of field, his future as an industrialist who also did business in the People’s Republic was sealed. Jimmy Lai decided to dedicate himself only to printing and founded Apple Dailya democratic newspaper that became the leader of a small publishing empire.
The rest of the story is recent: the large demonstrations to defend the special freedoms of Hong Kong, from 2014 to 2019, with Lai’s newspapers reporting on the mobilization of young people and the editor who marched peacefully in the front row, with the elderly. The clashes, the Chinese Security Law imposed in the summer of 2020, the intimidating raid conducted by 200 policemen in the editorial office of his newspaper, the arrest of Jimmy Lai, taken away in handcuffs in front of the cameras. In 2021 the tombstone on Apple Dailyforced to cease publications due to the freezing of funds.
Jimmy Lai he also has a British passport, when in 2020 it was now clear that the government would make him pay dearly for his democratic opposition, he could have chosen self-exile, going to live comfortably in London. He decided to stay to fight a hopeless battle for the future of the city that welcomed him as a boy.
How have international responses to Jimmy Lai’s legal challenges and the situation in Hong Kong impacted global perceptions of democracy in the region?
1. What is Jimmy Lai’s story and how did it lead him to become involved in politics and journalism in Hong Kong?
2. Can you explain the nature of the charges against Jimmy Lai and the controversy surrounding his meetings with US officials?
3. How has the National Security Law in Hong Kong affected freedom of speech and press freedom, and what does this mean for the future of democracy in the city?
4. What role did Apple Daily play in covering the massive pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong, and how significant was its closure in the crackdown on dissent?
5. Why did Jimmy Lai choose to stay in Hong Kong instead of seeking exile in Britain, and what motivates his continued fight for democratic values?
